Damian Thompson is Editor of Telegraph Blogs and a columnist for the Daily Telegraph. He was once described by The Church Times as a "blood-crazed ferret". He is on Twitter as HolySmoke. His latest book is The Fix: How addiction is taking over your world. He also writes about classical music for The Spectator.

Gosnell the baby-killer and the liberals who shielded him

One of the most disgusting serial killers in American history is standing trial in Philadelphia at the moment – and, since it’s happening in the US, where reporting restrictions are light, the media are free to discuss his case.

Only they haven’t – at least, not until recently, and even when the crimes are reported, they haven’t merited many headlines. Which is horrifying, when you consider what the killer is accused of. I’m going to leave out the nastiest details – but, seriously, if you don’t want to feel sick to your stomach, look away now.

Dr Kermit Gosnell, 72, “regularly and illegally delivered live, viable babies in the third trimester of pregnancy – and then murdered these newborns”. That quote is taken from the grand jury report on the case. It describes Gosnell’s practice, called the Women’s Medical Society, as “a filthy fraud in which he overdosed his patients with dangerous drugs, spread disease with infected instruments… and on at least two occasions, caused their deaths”.

According to one witness, when women were given medicine to speed up their deliveries “it would rain foetuses”. A former employee described the noise made by a baby delivered live during an abortion: “It sounded like a little alien.”

This month, to their credit, Kirsten Powers of USA Today and Conor Friedersdorf of The Atlantic ran articles asking why this wasn’t front-page news. The answer? Gosnell was a registered abortion provider. His killings blurred the line between late-term abortions and infanticide in a way that embarrassed pro-choice journalists.

Gosnell killed babies of the same age both inside and outside the womb. How can one be a legal termination and the other murder? Pro-choice writers and activists didn’t want to focus on that question. Indeed, reports of Gosnell’s foul clinic – which had a policy of treating white women more carefully than penniless black women – were routinely ignored by the Pennsylvania Department of Health, local hospitals, the National Abortion Federation and Planned Parenthood, a lobby group supported by Barack Obama.

The president – as a senator, the most hardline pro-abortion politician in Congress – was due to address a Planned Parenthood gala on Thursday. But then he suddenly curtailed his visit, in order to spend more time in Texas… and just possibly because we now know that the lobby group were warned about Gosnell but didn’t pass their concerns to the police.

Only in America, you might say. But I’ve been gauging the response of British social media to the Gosnell case; many tweets reek of the same culture of evasion, to put it politely. Earlier this week I raised the question on Twitter with the Rev Richard Coles, a Left-wing pop-musician-turned-vicar who presents Radio 4’s Saturday Live and does a nice line in clerical whimsy. He said his views were “not entirely formed yet”. And in a second tweet: “Too much brouhaha at the moment.”

That says it all, I reckon. Gosnell was protected not just by pro-choice extremists such as Barack Obama, but also by run-of-the-mill liberals who, despite their distaste for late-term abortions, didn’t want to provide ammunition for the Sarah Palins of this world. So, for years, they took steps to avoid a “brouhaha”. The results are available for anyone to see online in the form of a heart-rending photograph of a baby killed by Gosnell. Unlike Mr Coles’s views on the subject, it is “entirely formed”.

A totally new Thought for the Day

Talking of religion-lite, I’ve found a way to enjoy Thought for the Day. A Twitter account called @TFTDAbridged fits the daily messages into 140 characters. I don’t know who writes it, but he or she captures their profundity. “A new year is like a new exercise book. Christianity isn’t like a new exercise book, but forgiveness totally is.” “People argue about things, which means Pope Francis is totally like Nelson Mandela.” “Science is pretty good but it totally doesn’t explain religious stuff, so religion is right about stuff, just like my dogs.” And my favourite: “Marathons are totally like pilgrimages. Marathon runners are totally like Archbishop Desmond Tutu.”

Lady Paola? I don’t think so

Who is “Lady Paola Windsor”, author of a recent article in the Catholic Herald? She is the very beautiful, St Paul’s-educated wife of Lord Nicholas Windsor, who speaks seven languages and comes from an Italian noble family. I am sure she possesses every virtue – except, alas, a knowledge of forms of address. Both the Herald and Tatler call her “Lady Paola” at her request despite the fact that there is no such person. She is Lady Nicholas Windsor, just as the lovely wife of Prince Michael of Kent is Princess Michael.

It’s bad enough when life peers get their titles wrong – “Baroness Helena Kennedy” styles herself thus even in notes to the milkman, I’m told. But for such practices to spread to the fringes of the Royal family is… I’m sorry, but you’ll have to excuse me while I have a lie-down.

What Reckless really means

Theresa May told her first ever joke in the Commons on Wednesday, warning Tory MP Mark Reckless that his views on Abu Qatada were reckless. Geddit? Mr Reckless didn’t, suffering an epic sense of humour failure. “Her pun = allegation”, he tweeted.

The episode reminds me of The Diary of a Nobody, in which Mr Pooter remarks that his friend Mr Cummings is always going and his friend Mr Gowing is always coming. Both are mortally offended. “Gowing said he didn’t mind a joke when it wasn’t rude, but a pun on a name was certainly a little wanting in good taste.”

This newspaper’s Peter Simple used to urge people with odd surnames to chill out. “The name Musicseller has no connection with music, but is of Gaelic origin and means 'one who removes the eyes of partially gnawed potatoes’,” he wrote. Likewise, “Reckless” is from the Old English wroeclyws, meaning “angry bald bag-carrier”. So ignore Mrs May’s taunts, Mr Reckless. Wear your name with pride!

Dr Kissinger, the comeback kid

'Kissinger 'confident’ there will be no Korean conflict,” said the Wall Street Journal headline. And, underneath: “The former US Secretary of State, who was in Beijing…” Excuse me? Did I fall asleep and wake up in the early Seventies? If I turn on the telly, will Val, John and Pete say “Hullo”? But there he was on my iPad, remarkably unchanged despite the white hair, and wearing the smirk of a chap who always knew that one day his specs would come back into fashion.

These funny remnants of history make me feel less old. Dr Kissinger isn’t one of my heroes, but he’s surely the only man alive who can say to his hosts: “Have you seen the opera about my first visit here?”